Welcome to the BoomBlog

The Mobile Channel

In this post, I want to introduce some of the thinking behind the ShrinkRay solution. In later posts I'll explain how we help solve some very key business problems facing any enterprise attempting to conduct business over the mobile channel. ShrinkRay's unique approach allows companies to extract significant benefit from mobilisation while avoiding critical pitfalls and unintended side effects with far-reaching implications.

This conversation is best illustrated by looking at how companies have changed their operations to use the internet. What's happened there is happening again as companies attempt to use the mobile channel. The simple fact is some companies succeed while others fail miserably.

The internet age of customer service is well and long advanced. Sophisticated web-based customer service applications are common. Apple, Expedia, Amazon and ING Direct, are good examples. Some readers may point to the near-absence of human contact in the business processes of these companies. So I will state my criteria for suggesting these companies provide great customer service: Customers get what they want, quickly, reliably and accurately with high levels of satisfaction and intuitively understandable interactions.

While we may not agree on what constitutes great customer service in this day and age, its much easier to agree on examples where it is unimaginably bad. We continue to experience poor customer service from leading companies in spite of their ample resources and unfettered access to the needed technology. Among the many reasons for failure, key ones are inability to manage costs and failure to understand how new technology changes the game. ShrinkRay plays a pivotal role in allowing companies to overcome both of these problems.

Many of the ideas expressed in this series of posts are expressed in more detail in a really great Conference Board article: Precision Marketing, Five Ways to Make Better Marketing Investment Decisions by Jennifer Lacks Kaplan and Yakir Siegal. Note: Conference Board membership is required to view this article.

See the next post, The Mobile Channel Part 2 for a continuation of this discussion.

Cheers,

Dave Dingle
Co-Founder, BoomBoat Inc.

Dec 13, 2008 3:08:59 PM

Hello from the front lines!

BoomBoat has been in business for 8 years now. As a system integrator, we've built a lot of software for leading Telecom and Financial companies. As a business that began with no external funding, the imperative has always been to generate revenue from satisfied customers and re-invest to improve our tools and capabilities. The experience gained on the front lines, delivering massive real-time enterprise solutions, has given us unique insight to approaches and solutions that create real and lasting value for enterprises. We have steadily re-invested our profits to create powerful tools for integration and web application creation.

Several years ago, we chose mobile web technology as our focus area for re-investment. We tested and developed numerous approaches that ultimately led to a deep conviction about the best ways to mobilise enterprise web applications. Our ShrinkRay offering is the embodiment of those convictions into a service and technology offering that is now gaining a lot of fans in the enterprise world.

PC-focused web applications and Mobile web applications are two very different things. ShrinkRay recognises this and provides a way to create one from the other. ShrinkRay also provides a way to create state-of-the-art mobile applications that fully leverage on-device capabilities such as location awareness, map services, Personal Information Managers (PIMs), and telephony services.

Stay tuned to this blog for regular updates as the ShrinkRay story unfolds.

Cheers,
Dave Dingle
Co-Founder, BoomBoat Inc.

Dec 12, 2008 11:49:06 AM

The Need for Mobile Content

With over 50 million active web sites, it sure is difficult to access any mobile web specific sites. Why is this? Is it that companies don't think the channel is viable? Is it the fact that if companies create content they don't know how to market it? Is it the cost? It appears that each year there is a new answer, and for the most part a new question.

We need to break through the lack of content gap with engaging content that is readily accessible and easy to navigate.

Off deck browsing is growing according to the latest Crisp Wireless report. This is an encouraging sign. The iPhone factor is increasing the mobile web traffic by (depending on the source) double digit percentages quarter on quarter.

Smart phones clearly are the devices that need to be targeted. They provide the highest utility, largest screens, and a plethora of advances over your traditional cell phone. Some stats say the smart phone category will explode into the consumer segment with the launch of new flip and touch screen based Blackberry's. Here I agree.

Now, back to the first problem. Where is the content?

Sep 24, 2008 12:40:23 PM